Pasta in a flash

I made this baked pasta dish for Margaret’s birthday gathering on Sunday. It was so easy, and delicious. I used ground turkey instead of ground beef, and I added an onion, sauteeing it with the ground turkey and mushrooms.  I added a bit of sugar to the sauce, as I like my stewed tomatoes a [...]

A letter to Margaret

Dear Margaret,
How did you get to be three years old already? It was just yesterday that you were newly home from the hospital, orange with jaundice, wearing those horrible bilirubin lights. (Note: we didn’t know that you had jaundice, as you didn’t look orange to us. We thought you looked perfectly normal. Of course, we [...]

What do the swine flu and broken escalators have in common?

There’s nothing that freaks me out more than the words “global pandemic.” (Deep breaths, deep breaths.) It freaks me out so much, in fact, that I’m tempted to stop reading newspapers, watching television or surfing the net (and putting my hands over my ears and chanting “la la la” really loud) so that I can [...]

What’s the going rate for teeth?

David lost that loose tooth today. Twisted it and twisted it until it came out.  And now he looks like a boy instead of a pre-schooler.  He’s up there with his head on a “spare” pillow so that the tooth fairy can more easily reach under his regular pillow and exchange that tooth for money. [...]

Rainy days and Mondays

Yesterday morning was one of those mornings.  I can laugh about it now. Maybe it was because it was a Monday, or maybe because it was rainy, or maybe because it was a rainy Monday.  But for whatever reason, everyone was crabby, including me. 
David was upset because of his loose tooth. His first loose tooth, to be [...]

Easy appetizer that appears fancy

I made this appetizer last night for a family gathering. I’ve made it before, and each time, everyone raves about it and thinks it’s fancy. And that’s my goal – fancy.
Ingredients:
1 Frozen Pepperidge Farm puff pastry sheet, thawed
1 Round of brie cheese
Preserves (can be apricot, peach, or if you want to be really fancy, something [...]

Bang, bang

David and I had this conversation in the car last week:
David: “Mom, we can’t have guns at school, only at home, right?”
Me: “Well, David, we actually can’t have guns at school or at home or anywhere.”
David: “That’s okay, Mom, I can just make a gun with my finger.”
Now I assure you, we do not now, [...]

Friday, Friday

1. Does George Will really think that this is worth worrying about? Adults who wear jeans? Really?
2. In case you’ve been hiding under a rock, here’s Susan Boyle’s performance of “I Dreamed a Dream”, from Les Miserables, on “Britain’s Got Talent.”  (But be warned, you won’t be able to get the song out of your head. I’ve [...]

Easter bunnies

Not much time to blog lately.  Partly because I thought it would be a good idea to drive to 10 hours to Pennsylvania for a long weekend.  I’m glad we went, but we spent A LOT of time in the car.  We spent Easter at my brother’s church (officially called Mt. Zion UCC, but really [...]

My wish list (for today)

1. I wish that kids’ shoes had the size number stamped really big, in really dark font, on the bottom of the shoe, rather than  in really small, light font on the inside, where it rubs off.
2. I wish that there were signs in every el station which told you how long it was until [...]